Jade Helliwell - Brighton return on first headline tour

She is delighted to be returning to The Brunswick on October 22 where she played last year on her co-headline tour with Kezia Gill. She will be supported by Emila Quinn and Lucy May Walker.

It’s been a busy time for West Yorkshire-based singer-songwriter Jade whose style is a British blend of pop and country influenced by the likes of Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton, as well as contemporary artists Maren Morris and Cassadee Pope.

“I had a great time in Brighton last year. It was really good. It was my first time playing there and everybody had told me how great the crowds were. And they really were. They were very energetic, and it was was at the The Brunswick as well which is where I'm playing again this year.”

The gig comes hot on the heels of an EP which came out on October 7, with the lead single Woman I Am: “The song is about your flaws and your vulnerabilities and being proud of yourself. I know that I'm a little bit too nice sometimes and also a little bit stubborn. But I suppose my main flaw is that I'm always giving time to other people and too much attention without knowing whether it is going to be coming back. But the single says it is all OK. You might cry sometimes but you are fine.”

The fact that it is Jade’s headline tour is adding to the pressures: “It's in the build-up that you are having to make more decisions yourself whereas before it would have been a conversation. But now it's all down to me so yes there's more pressure and there is no one else to bounce ideas off but it is definitely very exciting and I'm really looking forward to it.

“I have been gigging since about the age of nine which is like 23 years ago! But really properly getting into country music and gigging on my own, I suppose I started that when I was about 21 or 22 so it's maybe ten years to get this far.

“When I was growing up I wasn't growing up in a household that played country music all the time other than Shania Twain but when I was 19 I taught myself to play the guitar and started playing people like Taylor Swift and I just love the way her songs tell a story. I started my own writing. I think that's the thing about country, just telling a story in the third person. I like the way with country that you can tell that the lyrics have come from a real place. There is a vulnerability in them. When I'm writing, I think I just write about life and love and heartbreak and family and friendships and all the questions that you ask yourself. I'd like to do an album at some point, but this EP is the first body of work that I have done since 2018. I've released singles sporadically. I'm not entirely sure what I will do next year, whether an album or back to more singles but it's great to be playing again.

“The pandemic seems like a world away when we were locked in, locked down in our houses and we couldn't go out, but I do feel that things are pretty much back to normal now. I've had a busy festival season and I've been able to travel again and that makes a big difference. You can see that some of the audiences are perhaps not so keen to be out in big crowds, that they are still wearing masks perhaps or just standing back a little bit but the great majority of people are just really taking the attitude that they're so pleased just to be back out there again after all this time.”